Wendy Craig
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Wendy Craig (born 20 June 1934) is a BAFTA Award winning English actress who is best known for her appearances in the sitcoms Butterflies, ...And Mother Makes Three and ...And Mother Makes Five. She currently plays the recurring role of Matron in popular TV series The Royal .
Biography
She was born in Sacriston, County Durham and attended Durham High School for Girls, which she re-visited on October 13th 2007 when she opened a new building named after her. She began her career in British films of the late 1950s appearing in films such as The Servant. However, it was in British sitcoms of the 1960s and 1970s that she became a household name, usually playing a scatty middle-class housewife. She went from the BBC's Not in Front of the Children (1967) to ITV's ...And Mother Makes Three (1971) (in which she played a single parent), which later evolved into ...And Mother Makes Five. Then came Butterflies (1978), a more offbeat comedy on BBC2.
Wendy Craig branched out into TV drama with Nanny in 1981 - a show she created herself - and currently plays a hospital matron in ITV's The Royal. However, she continues to be associated with comedy, having taken one of the leading roles in Brighton Belles, the UK's short-lived version of The Golden Girls.
Personal life
She was married to Jack Bentley from 1955 until his death in 1994. They had two sons and one daughter. In 2004 it was revealed that her second son was the result of a short affair with John Mortimer.
